And now to post the rest of my quick people sketching from New York City. It’s good to carry a smaller sketchbook for these little rapid fire captures. I thought it was a cliche but sketching on the Subway was great. Better than sketching on the tube, it’s like there’s this little bit more distance. Anyway, I sketched the view above on the C line while heading uptown, I can’t remember why I was on that line, and I think the one below was sketched on the Q or the N, honestly I don’t remember now. The New York Subway is very confusing for someone used to the simplicity of the London Underground. You get used to it pretty quickly, but on the whole it is not intuitive and very easy to get lost. I got lost straight away, but made the most of it because getting lost is fun sometimes. Those stations, they are just like they look in the old 70s movies, I imagine it feels creepy late at night when nobody is around, if ever that is the case, but it was busy and full of your average New Yorker. People not from New York actually asked me if the Subway was scary. Nope, just a normal transportation system that people use, but for some reason is designed to make no sense whatsoever. I loved it, but maybe if I was in a deserted station at night, I’d probably be petrified.

Here’s one from the R train, which I think is what I took back from Brooklyn to get back to our hotel. I was writing down some of the announcements while orange hood man slept. Round glasses man looked at his phone. Most people do that now. People like to complain about this on the tube, everyone just looking at their phones (as if they are expecting people to get on the tube and start having random conversations), but they used to hide behind big broadsheet newspapers. I miss getting the tube or bus and reading a book, or observing that unwritten rule where someone reads a newspaper, puts it down next to them, and someone opposite just automatically without asking or acknowledging the other person will just pick it up and start reading it, whether it’s a free Metro or a 30p (or whatever it is now, probably free) Evening Standard, and the person who was reading it just has to silently accept that the paper is no longer theirs. It’s one aspect of British society that definitely deserves doctoral study. I’ve not been on the Subway regularly enough to notice the societal quirks of it. I just did a few sketches, and tried not to get lost like the newbie tourist I am.

Leaving the urban theatre of the Subway behind, we also went to see an actual Broadway show, which was very exciting. We went to the Walter Kerr Theatre near Time Square to see Hadestown, which had great music and stagework, I very much enjoyed it, but a couple of months have passed now and I could not tell you a thing about it. I can’t remember any of the songs, but the costumes were amazing. So I liked it a lot, and I think you’d like it if you’re into that sort of thing, just don’t ask me what sort of thing that is because I’ve forgotten. Because I can’t sit still while waiting for anything, naturally I sketched some of the people waiting in their seats, and also did a quick sketch of the stage and the heads of some of the audience. I didn’t sketch during the show, because that would be a bit pointless.

Next day after some time wandering Greenwich Village with my teenager, I went off by myself to look for the much-vaunted High Line that everyone goes on about. It’s a long pathway, like a narrow park, built onto some old elevated railway tracks going from Hudson Yards through Chelsea down to the Meatpacking District. All the sketchers are like, you have to go there, so I did. I mean, it was alright, but I was not as whelmed as I thought I’d be. It was like, there are the streets, I’m a little bit higher than them, and here are some plants, oh look at painting or a sculpture. Hudson Yards was very very modern, and one of the buildings looked like Avengers Tower, but I wasn’t very interested, it’s not like the Quinjet was going to swoop by. I don’t know, perhaps I had just been spoilt by the incredible views from our hotel.  

I walked down the High Line with the many other slow-walking folk, passing close by one set of luxury flats after another, while people in trendy jackets took selfies and looked at boring modern sculptures. I decided not to walk all the way down to Chelsea Market, which did actually sound quite good, having gone quite a long way already. It was starting to feel like one of those TV series that everyone says you have to watch, and if you complain it’s a bit boring they say well it only starts getting good by about season three. I wasn’t getting to season three, so I took the stairs down and got back onto the streets, where things are real. I’m a street-level sketcher, like Daredevil, except when I’m looking down from the top of a building, like Daredevil. I never made it up to Hell’s Kitchen either.

After a morning spent around Washington Square, the West Village, the World Trade Center monuments (the first time my wife had been there since 9/11 happened) and Wall Street, we decided to take the long walk across the very famous (and rightly so) Brooklyn Bridge. Pedestrians walk above the cars, but it was still very busy with people. The sky was busy too, clouds and sunlight intermingling. We took a lot of photos. Once we reached the end it was a bit of a walk around to DUMBO, the area named after the elephant (not after a political leader, as you might think). Actually it stands for ‘Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass’ which is a pretty brilliant acronym if you ask me. Literally anything else, they could have called it. It’s like renaming the South Bank in London, what shall we call it? How about ‘Thames Waterside Area Trail’, or ‘Along the River’s South Embankment’. Still DUMBO it is now, until a better name comes along. It started raining when we got there, and the view became a bit foggier, so we went inside the Time Out Market Food Court, which had a lot of choices. I had this very spicy fried chicken for some reason. Our legs were feeling distressed and ready for a sleep, so after a little look along the waterfront and a few photos, we decided to get the Subway back to Chelsea. Then I looked back as the rain was stopping and decided, wait I’m probably not going to be back here for ages. How about I skip the late afternoon nap and sketch this? So I did, while the family went back to rest at the hotel. I mean, what a view. This is one of the world’s best views. The last time I was here it was like being in the Arctic, and the time before it was so foggy I couldn’t even see across the river, so I took advantage of the momentary good weather. I sketched the view above, looking out to the new World Trade Center building. You can’t get this far in the Spider-Man game, it blocks you off halfway across the bridge. Brooklyn Bridge is older than Tower Bridge, and those iconic cathedralesque arches give you a chill as you walk beneath them. I also stood down under the Manhattan Bridge overpass to draw the iconic view of that bridge (which I have sketched before on a trip 17 years ago). This time I caught it with the outline of the Empire State Building in the distance. I had to get back over there to rest before going out to see a show on Broadway, so once I was done I looked for the Subway, and left Brooklyn behind. It would be nice to explore Brooklyn a bit more some day, it’s so big.